The present invention relates to surgical clamps. In particular, the invention relates to surgical clamps having removable clamping members.
A wide variety of surgical clamps exist in order to perform a correspondingly wide variety of functions. Typically, however, a separate clamp must be purchased for each desired clamp functional surface, clamp size, and clamp shape.
One potential solution would be to change the pads on the clamp. U.S. Pat. No. 4,821,719 discloses a surgical clamp with replaceable pads. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 2,743,726 discloses a surgical clamp with a detachable resilient sleeve. The replaceable pads and resilient sleeve conform to the existing clamp functional surface. Thus, they do not allow different clamp functional surfaces, sizes, or shapes, making this an imperfect solution.
Another potential solution would be to provide a removable clamping structure. U.S. Pat. No. 5,569,274 discloses an endoscopic device with a releasable clamp. The releasable clamp allows multiple clamp surfaces to be first attached and then released. It is not, however, designed to provide for manipulation of the object clamped after clamping has occurred.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,582,615 discloses a hemostatic clip applicator with a removable surgical instrument. The surgical instrument disclosed is a clip applicator. It does not show that this concept can be applied to surgical clamps.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,308,358 discloses a shafted surgical instrument with a detachable shaft yoke. The shaft yoke is detachable for cleaning purposes. It fails to show that the actuators at the end of the shaft are themselves detachable, and does not suggest that the actuators can form clamping surfaces. Thus, it does not disclose a way of providing multiple clamping surfaces.
A final potential solution is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 1,048,937, which describes a wrench with detachable jaws. There is no teaching, however, that this innovation can be applied to other arts, such as the art of surgical tools. Furthermore, it shows that the jaws grip to perform turning, whereas the present invention grips to perform compression. Given that there is no need to use this wrench to compress pipes, a compression function appears to be an unnecessary application in an unrelated art, as compared to the art of surgical tools.
Thus, the problems that remain after consideration of the art include a need for multiple clamping surfaces at low cost, the manipulation of the object clamped after clamping has occurred, and compression of the object clamped.